Food is never a problem for those who love to cook.

Families which cook and eat together are the happiest.

Why Us?

Yet another cooking website, one can legitimately groan.
So some caveats should be in order.
First, this site wishes to catalogue only such recipes that you can rustle up at home with minimum equipment and fuss.
Secondly, while we all do enjoy gourmet cooking or exotic dishes once in a while, when we can afford them, this site wishes to focus on dishes, or rather meals that are nutritious and truly “Home style”.
This in India means rice or rotis (Indian unleavened bread), a dal (lentil), a vegetable or two and some times a meat dish, that we eat every day (yes, every day, I’m not lying!), for lunch as well as for dinner.
So spicing is minimalist, most of the time.
This also implies that you can’t get the dal that I have in my home in any restaurant, dhaba or five star hotel, for love or for money.
And that’s one USP of this site.
Most important, the meal would have to be rustled up, from scratch, in 30 minutes or so, lest it turns into a chore.
So cooking time is bonding time with friends or family with lots of cutting and washing and steaming and frying going on side by side with such planning and sequencing of operations that should put a Mission Mars to shame.
The emphasis is always on nutrition, taste and simplicity, and NOT on gorgeous photos with unedible plastic props, I must admit.
With this intro, let’s dig into this site that I dedicate to all those friends, relatives and acquaintances who have sampled my mom’s cooking either at my home or at my work place from my lunch-box.
I’d be covering a lot of Indian cooking, including Anglo-Indian cooking, so that the fear of “cooking curries every day” (that my friends in University College London would so often comment) is banished for ever.
As to all my readers and well-wishers, who wish to contribute similar “home style” recipes from their parts of the world, here’s a full throated invitation to come join us and make COOKING IN A JIFFY a world wide movement for home-style cooking that is nutritious and that celebrates family collaboration in cooking above every thing else.
 
Affectionately yours,
 
Prasenjeet Kumar
The CIAJ Team
 

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4 Responses so far.

  1. Shilpa says:

    Hi Prasenjeet,

    Your story and your site is amazing. I am impressed. Apparently,I am the co founder at Plattershare which is a revolutionary way of getting all the food lovers and bloggers together to create a complete eco system of foodies.

    Many a great bloggers have joined since our launch a couple of months back, we would love to have you too as a part of Plattershare. It is completely free and we are aiming to be the first wholesome food networking Platform of the world.

    Join the revolution now.

    Warm Regards

    Shilpa Jain,
    Co – Founder and Director,
    Plattershare.

  2. Joe Piecuch says:

    I recently acquired a copy of your lentil cookbook and am uncertain about the recipe on p. 29, Pachmahal Dal. Is the measure for the five dals correct at 1 tablespoon each? 5 tablespoons of mixed dals didn’t seem like much to cook with 4 cups of water. I like the cookbook very much, and thank you.

    • Prasenjeet says:

      Hi Joe. I’m glad you liked the cookbook. :)Yes, the measure of five dals is correct at 1 tablespoon each. We, in India, like to have our lentils with a soup like consistency, so that it goes well with rice. So 5 tablespoons of mixed dals cooked with 4 cups of water will get you that soup kind of consistency. However, In case you want to have a thicker consistency, to eat with bread, for example, you can add less, say three cups of water. Please also remember, that in the mixed dal, since each lentil cooks at a separate time, some would be more cooked than the others lending it the required (thickish) consistency. 🙂

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